Perhaps in the past winter he had been acting out a deep intrigue-perhaps he was drifting between rival currents, and yielded in any or all directions as the alternate pressure varied; yet whatever had been the meaning of his language, whether it was a scheme to deceive Henry, or was the expression only of weakness and good-nature desiring to avoid a quarrel to the latest moment, the decisive step which had been taken in the marriage, even though it was nominally undivulged, obliged him to choose his course and openly adhere to it. After the experience of the past, there could be no doubt what that course would be.

May 12.

On the 12th of May a citation was issued against the King of England, summoning him to appear by person or proxy at a stated day. It had been understood that no step of such a kind was to be taken before the meeting of the Pope and Francis ; Bennet, therefore, Henry's faithful secretary, hastily inquired the meaning of this measure. The Pope told him that it could not be avoided, and the language which he used revealed to the English agent the inevitable future. The King, he said, had defied the inhibitory brief which had been lately issued, and had incurred excommunication; the Imperialists insisted that he should be proceeded against for contempt, and that the excommunication should at once be pronounced. However great might be his own personal reluctance, it was not possible for him to remain passive; and if he declined to resort at once to the more extreme exercise of his power, the hesitation was merely until the Em

peror was prepared to enforce the censures of the Church with the strong hand. It stood not with his honour to execute such censures,' he said, 'and the same not to be regarded." But there was no wish to spare Henry; and if Francis could be detached from his ally, and if the condition of the rest of Christendom became such as to favour the enterprise, England might evidently look for the worst which the Pope, with the Catholic powers, could execute. If the Papal Court was roused into so menacing a mood by the mere intimation of the secret marriage, it was easy to foresee what would ensue when the news arrived of the proceedings at Dunstable. Bennet entreated that the process should be delayed till the interview; but the Pope answered coldly that he had done his best and could do no more; the Imperialists were urgent, and he saw no reason to refuse their petition. This was Clement's usual language, but there was something peculiar in his manner. He had been often violent, but he had never shown resolution, and the English agents were perplexed. The mystery was soon explained. He had secured himself on the side of France; and Francis, who at Calais had told Henry that his negotiations with the See of Rome were solely for the interests of England, that for Henry's sake he was marrying his son into a family beneath him in

2

1 State Papers, vol. vii. p. 457. 2 Sir Gregory Cassalis to the Duke of Norfolk. Ad pontificem accessi, et mei sermonis illa summa fuit, vellet id præstare ut serenis

simum regem nostrum certiorem

facere possemus, in suâ causâ nihil innovatum iri. Hic ille, sicut solet, respondit, nescire se quo pacto possit Cæsarianis obsistere.-State Papers, vol. vii. p. 461.

rank, that Henry's divorce was to form the especial subject of his conference with the Pope, had consented to allow these dangerous questions to sink into a May 28. secondary place, and had relinquished his intention, if he had ever seriously entertained it, of be coming an active party in the English quarrel.

The long-talked-of interview was still delayed. First it was to have taken place in the winter, then in the spring; June was the date last fixed for it, and now Bennet had to inform the King that it would not take place before September; and that, from the terms of a communication which had just passed between the parties who were to meet, the subjects discussed at the conference would not be those which he had been led to expect. Francis, in answer to a question from the Pope, had specified three things which he proposed particularly to 'intreat.' The first concerned the defence of Christendom against the Turks, the second concerned the general council, and the third concerned the extinction of the Lutheran sect.'1 These were the points which the Most Christian King was anxious to discuss with the Pope. For the latter good object especially, 'he would devise and treat for the provision of an army.' In the King of England's cause, he trusted 'some means might be found whereby it might be compounded; " but if persuasion failed, there was no fear lest he should have recourse to any other method.

It was this which had given back to the Pope his

1 Bennet to Henry: State Papers, vol. vii. p. 462.

2 Ibid.

courage.

It was this which Bennet had now to report to Henry. The French alliance, it was too likely, would prove a broken reed, and pierce the hand that leant upon it.

Henry knew the danger; but danger was not a very terrible thing either to him or to his people. If he had conquered his own reluctance to risk a schism in the Church, he was not likely to yield to the fear of isolation; and if there was something to alarm in the aspect of affairs, there was also much to encourage. His Parliament was united and resolute. His Queen was pregnant. The Nun of Kent had assigned him but a month to live after his marriage; six months had passed, and he was alive and well; the supernatural powers had not declared against him; and while safe with respect to enmity from above, the earthly powers he could afford to defy. When he finally divorced Queen Catherine, he must have foreseen his present position at least as a possibility, and if not prepared for so swift an apostasy in Francis, and if not yet wholly believing it, we may satisfy ourselves he had never absolutely trusted a prince of metal so questionable.

The Duke of Norfolk was waiting at the French Court, with a magnificent embassy, to represent the English King at the interview. The arrival of the Pope had been expected in May. It was now delayed till September; and if Clement came after all, it would be for objects in which England had but small concern. It was better for England that there should be no meeting at all, than a meeting to devise schemes for the massacre

of Lutherans. Henry therefore wrote to the Duke, telling him generally what he had heard

June.

from Rome; he mentioned the three topics which he understood were to form the matter of discussion; but he skilfully affected to regard them as having originated with the Imperialists, and not with the French King. In a long paper of instructions, in which earnestness and irony were strangely blended, he directed the ambassador to treat his good brother as if he were still exclusively devoted to the interests of England; and to urge upon him, on the ground of this fresh delay, that the interview should not take place at all.1

ye

shall say

'Our pleasure is,' he wrote,' that that we be not a little moved in our heart to see our good brother and us, being such princes of Christendom, to be so handled with the Pope, so much to our dishonour, and to the Pope's and the Emperor's advancement; seeming to be at the Pope's commandment to come or tarry as he or his cardinals shall appoint; and to depend upon his pleasure when to meet-that is to say, when he list or never. If our good brother and we were either suitors to make request, the obtaining whereof we did much set by, or had any particular matter of advantage to entreat with him, these proceedings might be the better tolerated; but our good brother having no particular matter of his own, and being. . . . that [no] more glory nor surety could happen to the Emperour than to obtain the effect of the three articles moved by the

...

1 Letter undated, but written about the middle of June: State Papers, vol. vii. p. 474